Planning

For info about estimating the network bandwidth users will need for syncing, see Network utilization planning for the OneDrive sync client. If your users have Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or later, we recommend using Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand, so you can deploy to a large number of users at once without causing network performance issues. Make sure you communicate the rollout to your users to set their expectations and give them guidelines and resources for working with OneDrive.

Overview of the deployment process

There are three steps in the process:

Install OneDrive.exe on your users' computers.

Start OneDrive processes and optionally prompt users to sign in with their work or school account.

Step 1: Install OneDrive.exe

For the most part, you can deploy the new OneDrive sync client sync client like you would traditionally install applications on devices in your organization. If you're deploying to a large number of users, having familiarity with enterprise deployment tools such as System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to deploy .exe files and modify local system registries will be helpful.

Check if users already have the OneDrive sync client

If the computers in your organization are running Windows 10, they already have the new sync client installed. If the computers have Office 2016 or Office 2013 (Home & Student, Home & Business, Professional, Personal, Home, or University) installed, they might also have the new sync client. Office is installed per machine, whereas OneDrive needs to be installed per user. If you plan on deploying Office to your organization, you will need to deploy OneDrive.exe separately for additional users on individual machines.

Deploy any administrative settings

To set registry keys on computers in your domain, install OneDrive and copy the OneDrive.admx and OneDrive.adml files from %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\BuildNumber\adm\ to your Group Policy central store. For more info, see Use Group Policy to control OneDrive sync client settings.

Use System Center Configuration Manager to deploy the OneDrive sync client

To install the OneDrive sync client on Windows, run the following command using System Center Configuration Manager:

Execute <pathToExecutable>\OneDriveSetup.exe /silent

(where pathToExecutable is a location on the local computer or an accessible network share).

Note

This command must be run at user logon and using Administrator permissions. It must be run for each user on a machine. For an example of how to deploy an .exe on every user account, see How to deploy the OneDrive sync client with SCCM.If you run the command with no command line parameter, users will see the installation status. After installation, OneDriveSetup.exe will automatically execute OneDrive.exe and display OneDrive Setup to users. If you run the command with the /silent parameter, OneDrive.exe will be installed transparently and OneDrive Setup won't appear. You'll need to run OneDrive.exe with an additional command. If you want to control the launch of OneDrive across your organization, we recommend using the /silent parameter.

The installer will install the OneDrive executable file under %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive.

To silently install the client on computers, use the /qn switch as part of the command-line options of the Microsoft Windows Installer Tool (Msiexec.exe). For example, the following command shows the silent mode installation (assuming the RMS Client installer package is already downloaded to C:\Downloads)

msiexec /qn c:\downloads\setup.msi

You can have the setup file on a network share and use managed software deployment to run the msiexec command.

Note

The sync client does not support IRM policies that expire document access rights.

Step 2: Help users sign in

OneDrive doesn't support single sign in using existing Office or Windows credentials, but you can help users sign in to the sync client in these other ways:

Use the following URL to start OneDrive Setup on users' computers. When users click to begin Setup, a sign-in window will appear for users can enter email address.

odopen://launch

Use the following URL with each user's email address to start Setup and prepopulate user email addresses in the sign-in window.

odopen://sync?useremail=youruseremail@organization.com

If you want to auto-configure a SharePoint site to be synced, you can use the URL below as a guide to build the path to the SharePoint site you want to sync automatically. Replace HERE with the correct values for each component of the URL.

Note

Replace special characters like the period (.), hyphen (-), and at sign (@) with the corresponding encoded values. For example, if the URL includes a hyphen, replace the hyphen with its encoded value, %2D. Additionally, you will need Client Side Object Model (CSOM) knowledge to query the team site to determine the appropriate SiteID, WebID and ListID to build the appropriate URL.

Run the following command using System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) script:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe

It starts the OneDrive process. If users haven't set up any accounts, it displays OneDrive Setup. To display OneDrive Setup specifically to users who haven't set up an account for your organization, use the command line parameter:

/configure_business:<tenantId>

Note

When you use System Center Configuration Manager, make sure you run OneDrive.exe with User permissions (not as an Administrator). > For help finding your tenant ID, see Find your Office 365 tenant ID.

Step 3: Set your update ring (Optional)

To delay updates to the OneDrive sync client, and control their deployment to your users, you can switch from the Production update ring to the Enterprise update ring. For more information about the update rings and how the sync client checks for updates, see The OneDrive sync client update process.